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Scholarly Metrics Altmetrics

This guide will help you establish and maintain your professional identity and measure the impact of research outputs

Alternative Metrics

Traditional bibliographic metrics based on citations are unable to fully capture the impact of a publication. To address this shortcoming, alternative metric tools were developed to track other forms of engagement. Altmetrics may include reference to an article in policy documents, coverage by news outlets, or mentions in social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter or blog posts/websites. Altmetrics also track other measures such as views and downloads of the original article. Altmetrics, used in complement with citation analysis, can build a more complete picture of the impact of a publication. However, like traditional citation analysis, Altmetrics are not a perfect measures of impact and their interpretation is context dependent.

How to view Altmetrics:

Altmetric Explorer – Article-level metrics based on social media (e.g., Twitter posts, Facebook, Pinterest, blogs, etc.), mainstream media, professional online sources such as LinkedIn, policy documents or white/gray literature, and post-publication peer reviews.

UAB has a subscription to Altmetric Explorer. Clink on the link to access the database:

Comparison of Bibliometrics and Altmetrics:

  Bibliometrics Altmetrics
Immediacy - How soon can I access metrics? Delayed - Once works that cite your work are online and/or indexed. Near immediate - When the work is online, you can view downloads, shares, likes, and an Altmetric attention score if there is one.
Coverage - Which types of sources have these metrics? Narrower range - Primarily journal articles, conference papers, books and book chapters. Works that have cited references and are indexed themselves. Other sources like data and software/code are not as well represented. Broader range - Any online source can have data like shares, likes, downloads. Resources tracked by Altmetric need a unique identifier such as a DOI.
Disciplinary Differences - What can I compare across different fields? Or in the same field?

There are disciplinary (and even sub-disciplinary) differences and these should not be crossed in any comparisons.

Comparisons within the same field should also be approached cautiously. Are the researchers in the same sub-discipline, and at similar places in their careers?

 Along with the standard disciplinary differences, works in disciplines that get a lot of news coverage may have metrics that reflect that. For example: health and medicine, climate change and other environmental topics, internet and new technology, etc.
Knowledge - How well known are the metrics? Established - Bibliometrics have a longer history, so times cited and journal impact factors are more familiar terms.  However, knowledge does mean these metrics do not get misused. New - Altmetrics are a more recent tool, and as such may not be as well known or highly regarded. Some may assume altmetrics are solely based on social media, rather than a broader scope of online engagement.

table modified from UCSD libguide

How to use Altmetrics

Answer questions such as:

  • How many times was a work downloaded and by whom?
  • Was a work covered by any news agencies or cited in policy documents/gray literature?
  • How many times was it shared online?
  • Which countries are looking at the research?

Some suggested use practices from Altmetrics.com:

  • Context is king: It’s usually much more informative to say, “This article has received 89 Mendeley bookmarks, putting it in the 98th percentile compared to articles of a similar age and subject” than it is to say “This article has received 89 Mendeley bookmarks” alone. Give viewers of Altmetrics a solid reference point when presenting the data.
  • Qualitative data is usually more illuminating than metrics alone: Presenting qualitative data alongside metrics can create a much more compelling case for research’s impact. For example, rather than saying, “This software has been mentioned in 32 news outlets,” you can say, “This software has been mentioned in 32 news outlets worldwide, including the New York Times and The Guardian.”
  • Altmetrics are a great supplement to citations: Even with the increased acceptance of altmetrics, citations are still the most recognized proxy for impact in many disciplines. Create a more comprehensive picture of research influence by including both types of metrics together where possible.
  • Find more uses cases at https://www.altmetric.com/use-cases/

adapted from Altmetric.com